Minnesota Gov. A Daily Caller News Foundation report found that Tim Walz welcomed Chinese Communist Party officials to his Nebraska classroom in the 1990s while he was a teacher.

According to an Alliance Times-Herald report, in February 1996, three “educators from southeast China” visited Walz’s Alliance High School class on social studies “to study the educational system.” According to DCNF records, the delegation also included CCP officials working for a Chinese intelligence and influence agency at the time.

Walz’s relationship with China, which dates back to his two-term tenure as governor of Minnesota, has been questioned more than ever since Vice President Kamala Harri’s August nomination of him as her running mate. Since then, media reports have revealed that Walz misrepresented details of his China trips and appointed a CCP-aligned political faction member to Minnesota’s Executive Branch.

No one from Walz’s campaign or Harris-Walz responded to the numerous requests for comment.

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Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from the federal authorities regarding the Governor’s connections to the communist country.

In August, Kentucky Rep. James Comer (chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability) sent a request to FBI Director Christopher Wray for information on “any Chinese entities or individuals with whom Mr. Walz might have engaged or partnered.”

Comer, a DCNF member, said that Walz’s relationships with Chinese Communist Party officials and entities bear the hallmarks of an infiltration and influence operation by the CCP.

Comer stated that FBI briefers informed the Oversight Committee recently that the Bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force investigated CCP subnational influences operations and activities that are similar to the way China has engaged Governor Walz. The Oversight Committee is determined to find out how far Governor Walz has gone in his relationship with China.

Engagement With the CCP

The three members of the Chinese delegation visited the rural Nebraska high-school where Walz was teaching social studies and where his wife and he had run a program that took students to China.

We had some Alliance High Students in China four years ago. “We’ve had a few each year since,” the designated interpreter Ning Ziheng said during the 1996 Alliance Times-Herald visit.

Ning Ziheng, who was identified as affiliated with the Macao Political Institute by the local newspaper, served as an interpreter for Ye Guoqiang, Yi Hongtao and other members of the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education. The Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education, located in Guangdong Province, is “the only sports university of higher learning in South China,” according to its archived website.

According to DCNF’s review of Chinese government records and academic records, Ning Ziheng was not a CCP-member, but the other two were.

According to an archived version of Yi Hongtao’s profile on Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education’s website, he joined CCP in 1976. According to Chinese government records, Yi Hongtao was the director of Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education’s Foreign Affairs Office and later a member of its CCP committee at the time of his 1996 visit.

In a 2021 post on social media, the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education revealed that Ye Guoqiang was a CCP for 56 years, indicating he had joined the party decades before 1996 Nebraska visit.

Chinese government reports from Guangdong state that Ye Guoqiang was deputy party secretary of the CCP committee at Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education. The CCP committee of the institute published between 1992 and 1997 reports written by Ye Guoqiang. These indicate that he was deputy party secretary during the 1996 Nebraska trip.

According to the Alliance Times-Herald, Ning Ziheng stated that the purpose of the 1996 visit was to “learn about the education system in the United States.” “We will compare the education system in China with ours and see how to improve it.”

Alliance Times-Herald reports that Bill Gannon, superintendent of Alliance High School, invited a Chinese delegation to visit his school. Gannon was not available for comment.

Troy Unzicker told DCNF via email that the current school board and administration had not worked with Mr. Walz. “I do not personally know Mr. Walz. I cannot help.” “I am not aware that anyone from the school system was involved in this.”

The Chinese delegation visited Walz’s classroom on two separate days. They first stopped at the Central Elementary School English Class of Walz’s wife Gwen before moving onto Walz’s Social Studies class. The Alliance Times-Herald stated that the Chinese delegation would watch Alliance High School basketball practice after visiting Walz’s classroom. They also planned to visit local ranches.

It is fascinating to see all the open space. According to Alliance Times-Herald, Ning Ziheng stated that “America” impressed her a great deal. “We believe this area to be more agricultural. “We like this type of environment.”

According to Alliance Times-Herald, before visiting Nebraska, the delegaion toured a Los Angeles highschool that was not named. The delegation was reportedly planning to visit University of Northern Iowa during a third leg of their trip.

No comment could be obtained from Yi Hongtao and Ye Guoqiang.

‘Grooming and Wooing’

Chinese government documents reveal that the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education, where the three delegation members worked or previously worked, is listed as an influence and intelligence unit of China.

The Guangdong branch of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship With Foreign Countries has listed the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education repeatedly as a “group-member,” including during the 1996 Chinese delegation’s visit to Nebraska, between the 6th and 7th Congresses of CPAFFC which lasted from 1995 to 2005.

Federal authorities describe CPAFFC’s role as “affiliated” or “subordinated” to a Chinese intelligence and influence service known as the United Front Work Department. The State Department warned in 2020 that CPAFFC was a “Beijing based organization tasked to co-opt subnational governments”, which has “sought directly and maliciously to influence state and local officials to promote the PRC’s global agenda.”

Over the years, CPAFFC held many sports events at Guangzhou for foreign groups visiting Guangzhou.